Climate Change and Environmental Awareness

Climate change

• Refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such

  shifts can be natural, due to changes in the

  sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions.

• But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of this, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Human and Natural Causes

The Primary Causes of Climate Change

Climate Change Effects

• Extreme Weather Events

• Impact on Biodiversity

• Rising Temperatures

• Changing Precipitation Patterns

• Ocean Acidification

• Human Health Risks

Reforestation

Is the practice of restoring previously existing forests and woodlands that have been destroyed or damaged. The prior forest destruction might have happened through deforestation, clearcutting or wildfires.

Afforestation

Is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees (forestation) in an area where there was no recent tree cover. In comparison, reforestation means re-establishing forest that have either been cut down or lost due to natural causes, such as fire, storm, etc.

How to prevent climate change

• Reforestation & Afforestation

• Sustainable living

• Reduce carbon footprint

Sustainable living

• Refrain from using plastic shopping bags.

• Use of eco-friendly household products.

• Consume organic food

• Sort household waste

• Reuse and Recycle

Reduce carbon footprint

• Use public transportation

• Reduce electricity usage at home

• Use the least polluting vehicle

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Greenhouse effect

Is the natural warming of the earth that results when gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun that would otherwise escape into space. The process was identified by scientists in the 1800s.

Causes of Greenhouse effect

• Sunlight, with the natural greenhouse effect process, makes the earth habitable.

• Around 30 percent of the solar energy

  the light and heat from the sun—that

  reaches our world is reflected back into

  space, the rest is either absorbed by the

  atmosphere or the earth’s surface.

Greenhouse gases

• Trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the planet.

• The main gases responsible for this include:

  • Carbon dioxide

  • Methane

  • Nitrous oxide

  • Water vapor

• Concentrations of gases are measured in parts per million (ppm), parts per billion (ppb), or parts per trillion (ppt).

Radiative forcing (RF)

• Is another way to measure greenhouse gases (and other climate drivers, such as the sun’s brightness and large volcanic eruptions).

• Indicates the difference between how much of the sun’s energy gets absorbed by the earth and how much is released into space as a result of any one climate driver.

Five major Greenhouse gasses

1. Carbon Dioxide

2. Methane

3. Nitrous Oxide

4. Fluorinated Gas

5. Water Vapor

Carbon Dioxide

Five major Greenhouse gasses:

• Accounting for almost 80 percent of

  global human-caused emissions, this gas sticks around for quite a while.

• Once it’s emitted into the atmosphere,

  40 percent still remains after 100 years,

  20 percent after 1,000 years, and 10

  percent as long as 10,000 years later.

Methane

Five major Greenhouse gasses:

• Persists in the atmosphere for around 12 years, which is less time than carbon dioxide, but it is much more potent in terms of the greenhouse effect.

Nitrous oxide

Five major Greenhouse gasses:

• Is a powerful greenhouse gas: According to the EPA, it has a GWP that is around 270 times that of carbon dioxide on a 100-year time scale, and it remains in the atmosphere,

  on average, a little more than a century.

Fluorinated Gas

Five major Greenhouse gasses:

• Emitted from a variety of manufacturing

  and industrial processes, fluorinated

  gases are man-made. There are four main

  categories:

  • Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

  • Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)

  • Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)

  • Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3)

Water Vapor

• The most abundant greenhouse gas overall, differs from other greenhouse gases in that changes in its atmospheric concentrations are linked not to human activities directly, but rather to the warming that results from the other greenhouse gases we emit.

Electricity and heat production

Where do Greenhouse gases come from?

• The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report

  states that the burning of coal, oil,

  and gas to produce electricity and

  heat accounts for one-quarter of

  worldwide human-driven emissions,

  making it the largest single source.

Agriculture and land use

Where do Greenhouse gases come from?

• About another quarter of global

  greenhouse gas emissions stem from

  agriculture and other land uses, like

  deforestation.

Industry

Where do Greenhouse gases come from?

• According to the IPCC, about one-fifth of global human-driven emissions come from the industrial sector, which includes the

  manufacturing of goods and raw materials

  (like cement and steel), food processing,

  and construction.

Buildings

Where do Greenhouse gases come from?

• Operating buildings generates 6.4 percent

  of global greenhouse gases.

• These emissions, made up mostly of carbon dioxide and methane, stem primarily from burning natural gas and oil for heating and cooking, though other sources include leaking refrigerants (fluorinated gases) from air-conditioning and refrigeration systems and the management of waste and wastewater.

Transportation

Where do Greenhouse gases come from?

• The burning of petroleum-based fuels,

  namely gasoline and diesel, to power the

  world’s transportation systems accounts

  for 14 percent of global greenhouse gas

  emissions.

Acid Deposition

It Is the process by which acidic pollutants from the atmosphere fall to the ground through wet and dry means

Acid deposition causes

• Vehicle Emissions

• Burning Fossil Fuels

• Natural Occurrences

Goal Plants

• Have byproducts that contributes to acid desposition such as SO2 and No.

Oil Refineries

• Have byproducts that contributes to acid desposition such as NO2.

Acid Rain

• Is generally any form of

  any type of precipitate.

• Normal rain is 5.5 in Ph scale

  while this rain is even more acidic

  which is 4 in the Ph scale.

Early 1970s

• When EPA wanted to reduce emissions of oil refineries and oil plants.

• They decided to build higher stacks of buildings so the smoke would disperse away from local communities.

• Instead it was carried by the wind up to 600 miles back to the same communities.

Effects of Acid rain

• Damage buildings

• Leach metals from soil

• Fishes cannot survive at a lower ph

• Harmful to the respiratory system

• Harmful to the natural-environment

Thermal Inversion

A reversal of the normal behaviour of temperature in the troposphere

Troposphere

The region of the atmosphere nearest Earth’s surface.

thermal inversion impact

• Environmental Impact

• Health Effects

• Air Quality

• Economic Consequences

Mitigation Strategies

• Emission Reductions

• Urban Planning

• Public Awareness

Enviromental Awareness

• It refers to the understanding of environmental issues and the importance of protecting natural resources . It involves recognizing the impact of human activities on the environment and taking action to mitigate negative effects.

Risk

• Is a probablity that a community ’s structure or geographic area is to be damage or disrupted by the impact of a particular hazard/disaster.·      

• A serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using it’s resources (definition by the UN).

Hazard

• A dangerous condition or event or occurrence that threatens or have the potential to cause disruption, damage, injury to life, infrastructure and services, property and environment.

• A disaster is a product of this

Vulnerability

• The extent to which a community can be affected by the impact of a certain hazard.

• These conditions can turn a situation into  a risk or possiblity of disaster in any area.

• Conditions like ignorance, poverty, lack of information,inadequency etc. adds to the severity of a disaster (Physical and Socio-economic vulnerablity).

Capacity

Those resources and strengths which exists in households and communities enabling them to cope with, withstand, prepare for, mitigate or quickly recover from a disaster.

Disaster risk management

• is the most complex, interrelated and multi-connected discipline. It is the human intervention behavior which creates

  negative and positive ecological system.

• is about identifying and analyzing risk, and deciding what to do about them.

• Is a problem-solving and decision-making process, which will assist us in selecting the most effective actions.

• Nearly 25% of the world’s landmass and most of its population is at risk.

• Disaster’s impacts are exacerbated by a series of dynamic processes, including population growth, increasing levels of velnerability, poor planning, climate change etc.

Risk Management Process

1. Identifying risks

2. Analyze and prioritise risks

3. Identify risk management strategies

4. Implement strategies

5. Monitor, evaluate and adjust as necessary

An element at risk, A source of risk

A risk consists of two components

Element at risk

Are things your community values which could be exposed to harm.

Sources of risks

Are the hazards that may cause harm.

Elements at risk

• People

• Buildings

• Infrastructure

• Equipment

• Environment

• Organizations

• Culture and Heritage

• Livelihoods

• Crops and Farmland

• Services

probability & consequences

A way to prioritise risk is by relative _________&_________ of each risk.

Probability

Is the likelihood that something may happen in the future.

Consequence

is the degree of harm that a risk may cause.